A Quest For Calypso
by hybrid3690
Summary: Alone. Helpless. Desperate. Waiting on an island. It's time she got rescued.
1. I Get Curious

**Hi guys! I'm super ecstatic about this new story. Hope you enjoy it! (By the way, the protagonist (main character) is me!) Oh, and also, I'll be updating this story often, changing facts and WHOLE CHAPTERS here and there, so take the time and re-read the whole story every time you visit. Thanks! My story HAS to be perfect; This is one of my most major projects. :D**

_Calypso. Trapped under the curse of being on a phantom island, Ogygia, by the gods, because she supported the Titans, including her father, Atlas, at the first Great War. A beautiful maiden, she awaits a hero every thousand years to wash up on her shores, just like the fates let her. Unfortunately, that hero always leaves in the end, breaking Calypso's heart._

My heart was full of sadness. A minor goddess like her shouldn't be punished like this. Hearing the bells signaling dinner, I quickly shut the book, stuffed it under my pillow and took a quick stroll towards Peleus, the dragon guarding Thalia's tree, with Lia, my cabin mate, and stroked his snout affectionately.

Settling down at the Zeus table, Chiron's loud voice boomed across the dining pavilion. "Campers, as your new camp director, I am pleased to inform you that there will be a session of capture the flag tomorrow evening, so I trust you all will prepare for it. Now, let's eat. To the gods!" After a satisfying meal, I headed back to my cabin. "Lia, I want to ask you something."

"Yes, Ryan?"

"Have you ever heard of Calypso?"

"Definitely!"

"Then are there any genuine ways to reach her island?"

"Why do you even want to go there?"

"Well, I'm just curious…"

And with that happy note, my head thudded onto the pillow and I instantly fell asleep.


	2. I Have A Bizarre Dream

In my dream, I dreamt of a girl. A maiden with long, silky hair and her body glowed faintly. She was wearing a dress, pure white, and _that _glowed too. She was on an island, a lone, deserted island in the middle of nowhere. In front of a cave, she knelt down, gently stroking dandelions, while humming a soft tune. I think it was "Don't Stop Believin'".

After a while she sat down on a rock, watching waves crash onto the beach. Suddenly, a grotesque head surfaced, followed by another, and then three more. Hydra. "Aaaaaah!" Her shrill scream pierced the air, and the monster gave a growl in return. The girl ran back into the cave, she ran and ran until she reached the inner cave. She opened a door in the wall, zoomed inside and shut the door tight.

Once safely in the room, she flopped down onto her bed , her chest heaving rapidly. Back at the scene of the Hydra, its body surfaced to and to my astonishment a man wearing a dark cloak was sitting on its back. His appearance was electrifying, sparks shot out of his hands, and the area around him seemed to be distorted as if static electricity was surrounding him. He smiled faintly and muttered under his breath, "_The curse has been lifted."_


	3. I Consult A Screaming Lunatic

When Lia yelled into my ears that morning to get me out of bed (like she does every morning), I didn't hesitate. That dream I had wasn't ordinary. It had to mean something. I visited the Athena cabin for a while to speak with its cabin leader, Driellia.

"Driellia, do you know anything about Calypso?" "Yeah, sure, she lives on the island Ogygia, got cursed to stay there because she supported her father, Atlas the Titan, in the first Great War, by the gods, and every thousand years the Fates permit a hero to wash up on Ogygia to let Calypso tend to them and befriend them, but eventually they leave Calypso to finish their quest, leaving her heart-broken, and she kept one of the Greek heroes, Odysseus, on her island for seven years, forcing him to marry her, but let him go when Zeus sent Hermes to tell her to, as Zeus has always played favorites on Calypso."

She drew a deep breath, after reciting that ridiculously long sentence. "Yeah, thanks!" I said.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?" Lia yelled at me. I had just told her I wanted to ask Chiron for a quest to save Calypso, and she looked at me as if I had just asked her for a million dollars. "CALYPSO IS UNDER A CURSE AND SHE CAN NEVER LEAVE HER ISLAND!"

"But I dreamt that Zeus-" "IT WAS JUST A DREAM, RYAN, IT COULD BE A FAKE!" Furious, I stomped out of the cabin and raced down towards the Big House, wanting to consult Chiron.


	4. I Get My Quest

"Chiron," I said, puffing and panting, "I've erm…. Kinda… Had a dream."

"What sort of dream?" He inquired.

"Well, I think it's about Calypso."

"Ah, Calypso," sounding as if he had heard the phrase a hundred times, "she lives immortally on Ogygia, cursed to-"

"Not to be rude Chiron, but I'm quite clear with her legend already."

"Oh, that's alright, my teaching instincts just _kick_ in sometimes, you know. So, tell me about this dream." After relating the contents of the dream to him, he thought in silence for a while. "As far as I know, there have been no cases in Greek history of dreams linking to Calypso's life… I suspect that Calypso has been eyeing you, especially you, Ryan. She has possibly created an empathy link between the two of you. That should be the reason you had that dream. That part about Zeus… I'm very interested in that…"

"It seems to be that Zeus has finally banished Calypso's curse and now she can leave the island. Zeus' favors Calypso, in fact, I don't see why he shouldn't have done that. But what I am concerned about is… Now that Ogygia's protection is very much destroyed with the curse, Calypso is also very much vulnerable to monster attacks." I'd never thought of that. In a more serious tone, Chiron continued, " I know your primary reason for coming to my humble sanctuary today is to request for a quest, is it not?"

"… Yes." I admitted.

"Do you have the determination, courage, and the heart to carry out a quest for Calypso?"

"Yes! Sincerely, with all my heart!" I exclaimed louder than I had wanted to. "I mean, yes, of course."

"Then go back to your cabin, I shall announce this over campfire tonight."

At the campfire after dinner today, Chiron announced my quest. While he was doing so, I saw Lia sitting at the opposite end of the Zeus table, trying to avoid eye contact with me. Sparks were literally shooting out of her eyes (like kids of Zeus always do when they are angry) and were blazing with shame (because I got the quest, when she predicted I wouldn't) and hatred for me. _Her anger would wear off in time, just like always. _I thought. _I hope so. _After Chiron announced my quest, he beamed down from the podium at me. _My quest, _I thought happily, _now Calypso's fate is in my hands._


	5. We Play Capture The Flag

After campfire, my team got ready for capture the flag. The Zeus cabin was put with the Hades, Hephaestus, Athena and Ares cabin. Samuel, the head of the Hephaestus cabin, had invented some wickedly cool traps. The Athena kids had made a few battle plans. I left that to them. Hades was going all out. YiYun, the only child of Hades in Camp Half-Blood, had her Stygian blade, a meter-long sword of death.

YiYun has a pretty bad attitude, but you should really see her in combat. I had my own electric-infused sword, electrified by Zeus' own Master Bolt, and cooled in the River Lethe. Its name is Boltstream. From the Ares cabin, Zheng Jie, the only Chinese in the camp, had two searing-hot swords, and an emergency electric-spear, passed onto him by Clarisse. I figured we would be doing fine. Only Lia was down in the dumps.

We all ran to our stations, waiting for Chiron's horn to blow. Once it did, I immediately climbed up a tree. It always gives me a better view of the place. Lia, still moody, ran in the opposite direction. From there, I saw a Demeter cabin boy. Throwing a bolt of electricity I had just conjured, the boy fell with an "Ahhh!" Jumping out of the tree, I ran towards the water. My good friend Dylan was standing there, but being a son of Poseidon, that wasn't so shocking. Resisting the urge not to, I struck Boltstream down on the river. The water exploded all around me, and the next thing I knew, Dylan was lying on the surface of the water, panting. "Sorry man," I whispered to him as I left.

Just when I was going to help Zheng Jie set up those traps, a Dionysus camper came running up to me. "Not so fast," he spoke with a malicious tone. Our blades struck, my sword sending showers of sparks over us. _Help me, _I willed the wind gods. _Helpme._ Suddenly, I felt a new surge of energy rush through me. I raised my hand and fired a blast of air towards the camper. Shocked, he could only lie trembling on the ground. Just as I was at the edge of the forest, a group of Dryads there stopped me, giggling.

"Come play with us," they wooed. "Go play with your Satyr friends, please." I replied. "No, you shall keep us company!"After a few more giggles, I couldn't take it and shook them off. "_Dryads," _I muttered. In the forest, Zheng Jie was having a wee bit of a problem. Three Apollo kids were pitted against him. "Let him go!" I roared. I knocked aside one of the kids, Sandrine, with the flat of my blade. She lay on the floor, stunned.

I swung my sword at the rest, creating a deadly arc of electricity. Zheng Jie backed up as an Apollo kid swung at him with his dagger. "_Nobody_," I said, "touches my friends." I engaged in battle with those two kids. I parried and blocked and jabbed, until both of them were unarmed. They both looked worried and scared.

"Go away."I muttered. They didn't need to be told twice. At that moment, the horn sounded. "THE BLUE TEAM HAS WON!" Chiron's magically magnified voice boomed all over the forest. Content, I went to take a shower. Just after showering, I felt something. Something that wasn't right. Like…like there was someone I had to know about.


	6. Prophecy, Here I Come!

**Hi guys, I would really appreciate it if you could comment on my story. I really need some tips on my writing, or constructive comments. Thanks! (Or just favorite it, you know.) And, I also updated a few bits of this chapter.**

The next day, I went to The Big House, where Rachel, the Delphi Oracle, stays. "Hey Rachel, I need my prophecy. Can you...erm... Do one of your weird-glowing-eyes-thingies?" I said stupidly. "But no offence." I added hastily.

"Sure,"she said politely. Then her eyes started to glow green, and she spoke in a dry, raspy voice:

"_With five others you may venture,_

_Into a passage leading out of this camp._

_And then meet a wise old teacher,_

_Who will give you the lamp._

_Journey forward you must,_

_Until the one fallen has risen,_

_Then sprinkle the lamp's golden dust,_

_And you will find the last passage somewhere hidden."_

Stumped, I strolled back towards my cabin, wrote the prophecy on a piece of paper, stuck it in my pocket, and went back to sleep. Two hours later, after waking up and having breakfast, I headed over to where Chiron was training a group of Aphrodite girls to throw javelins, but they were mostly looking at themselves in mirrors and putting on makeup, anything except listen to Chiron speaking.

I walked closer to Chiron, wanting to tell him about my prophecy from the Oracle. To my huge surprise, he pulled me right towards a station with a set of javelins by my side and a big dartboard in front. "Now girls, I want you all to watch Ryan throw a javelin. Pay good attention to his posture, how he locks his legs to make sure he doesn't move when he's throwing, and how he holds with javelin." All the girls giggled. Javelin throwing hasn't been a problem for Zeus kids for aeons, since Zeus is always throwing lightning bolts, so I guess we caught on.

I grabbed a javelin, locked on to the bull's-eye, pulled back my throwing arm and thrust it forward, letting the javelin fly. _Thump. _I heard the distinctive sound that signals the meet of the javelin and the dartboard. "A BULL'S-EYE!" Chiron yelled, and held my fist up high. The girls giggled again. "Chiron, I want to tell you about my prophecy. Can I have a minute with you?" "Why not? Girls, we're taking a break. I want to see you all practicing by the time I get back."

Once we were a safe distance away, I recited my prophecy to Chiron. "Ah yes, it seems like the Oracle has suggested yet three heroes to go again. _A passage leading out of camp… _So the entrance of the passage must be located somewhere within this camp. It can't be the Labyrinth's passage, it's been magically sealed… So the passage must be located somewhere else. _A wise old teacher…a lamp… The fallen one….. Ah…. I think that must be Pa- Oh no, I mustn't presume with no proof…. Lalalalala…._"

"Well Ryan, this may be one of the most mystifying, puzzling, confusing, incomprehensible prophecies ever….. Ah…." Chiron muttered all this to himself, thinking deeply. "Well, Ryan, it really isn't my specialty to comprehend prophecies…. I'm afraid you'll have to do this part of the quest by your own. You'll pick the answers up along the way, I'm sure. The least I can do to help you is to tell you this, that Calypso has a special power of hers, and that is to communicate with other humans' minds. Well, good luck then, you will be starting your quest tomorrow!"


	7. I Have An Emotional Overflow

I'd noticed that Lia had been quite grumpy… So I decided to apologize (for her mistakes).

"Hey Lia-"

"What." She said it in an emotionless tone.

"I'm sorry about-"

"You don't have to say sorry. I was the one that screamed at you for no reason." But some part of it told me she wasn't truly forgiving me.

"Well, it isn't like you to be so willing to apologize to others…. Not that I don't accept yours." I added quickly.

"It just…just that… I'm worried for you. It's going to be a tough quest. I know it. I can feel it in my bones, you know. You are my brother, after all." Her tone was suddenly calmer, gentler.

_Time to bring out Lia's weakness, _I thought. "Do you need a hug?"

"Yes please." She said softly, and broke into tears.

For the first time in ages, I actually felt sorry for Lia. _Emotional overflow, _I reminded myself, _don't let it control you,_ I thought, holding back tears. I embraced Lia. I could hear Lia sobbing beside my ear. "It's gonna be okay," I said, "everything's gonna be fine." I let go of her, but she held tight. "Stay with me for a while, please." I gently stroked her hair, and after a while, she let go.

"Sorry for the emotional act." She said, sniffing, wiping away tears with her over-sized cardigan's sleeve. She sniffed, then said, "I'll be…umm… Just washing up." She ran inside the outhouse, and stayed in there for a while.

Slightly overwhelmed, I lay in my four-poster bed, drew the curtains, and stared at the ceiling. A million emotions were running through my brain. I heard Lia walk in the cabin and sit in her bed, drawing her curtains close, too. I parted a little gap in my curtains and saw a silhouette of Lia, kneeling on her bed, writing her diary. The fact is: she writes it every night, but I suppose today was an exception. "Hey Lia," I said. "Yeah?"

"I'm sorry for everything. Ignoring you, getting mad at you…and… Being the worst big brother in the world." Lia sobbed harder than ever. "No…" she said, drawing her curtains, "you're the best brother I can ever get." She looked so sincere when she said that. Emotion took over me. Tears ran steadily down my cheeks, and I buried my face in my hands. I wasn't the best brother Lia can get. I didn't even deserve to be her brother. From that day onwards, I made a silent oath: To truly be the best brother Lia can, is having, and will ever get.


	8. Character factfile

**Alright people, I'm creating a little fact-file just for you guys so you can know the characters better. **

_RYAN_

Age: 12

Weapon: Boltstream

Weapon Origins: An electric-infused sword, electrified by Zeus' own Master Bolt, and cooled in the River Lethe. Ryan is its first owner. They complement each other. Boltstream is a lightning-shaped thumb-drive. Uncap it, and it turns into its sword form.

History: Diagnosed with ADHD and Dyslexia from a young age, he caused mayhem almost everywhere. Seeing that causing a racket everywhere he went was not a good idea, Ryan stuck to the quiet life of music and art. That is, until he was noticed by a satyr-in-disguise, Mr Hedge, in his third-grade school. The day he arrived at Camp Half-Blood was the day he had fought his first monster, an empousai. Slashing a through her heart using a thumb-drive that transformed into a sword (Boltstream), he defeated the empousai. Boltstream had apparently appeared in his pocket when he encountered the empousai. His first friend at Camp Half-Blood was his sister, Lia, followed by Dylan. Damien, his god-brother, is also very close to him. Damien is unclaimed, because he is only 10. But he has his own wicked staff which is celestial bronze-tipped.

Strengths: Sword-fighting, arguing, being awesome.

Weaknesses: Emotional break-downs.

Likes: Playing with his powers, heights, hanging out with his friends, being who he is, and music.

Dislikes: Brussels' Sprouts, being called a coward.

Favorite phrase: "Deal with it."

Appearance: A T-shirt, shorts and a watch. Boltstream in pocket.

Person he likes: You'll find out.

Cool fact: He can speak to birds, and will do anything in his comfort zone when he hears music. Oh yeah, his bed has an awesome built-in TV, music system and an electronic book screen on the ceiling of his bed, so he can lie down and read. All built by himself.

_DYLAN_

Age: 12

Weapon: Riverburst

Weapon Origins: A sword. It's method of forging unknown, passed down from Otos, one of the Aloadai.

History: -NIL- (But very boring)

Strengths: Keeping cool.

Weaknesses: Being embarrassed, singing.

Likes: Swimming. Insisting that a girl he likes likes him. Girls. Swimming. More girls.

Dislikes: Theatre plays and musicals. People making fun of him.

Favorite phrase: -NIL-

Appearance: Usually an Ocean-Pacific T-shirt, and shorts.

Cool fact: He can control water easier if he thinks about his mom.

_YIYUN_

Age: 12

Weapon: Reapsting

Weapon Origins: A Stygian blade, an alloy of Stygian and Lethian metal. Given by Persephone.

History: She arrived at Camp Half-Blood because her mother decided it was the right time. She thought the special 'camp' her mother was going to send her to was a camp for mentally disoriented kids.

Strengths: Having a bad attitude.

Weaknesses: Having a bad attitude.

Likes: Revenging people who have been mean to her.

Dislikes: Aphrodite kids.

Favorite phrase: "Karma comes back at you kicking you in the butt." (Notice I don't say 'a**' because this is a K-rated fanfic.)

Appearance: Dark mascara, dark jacket, dark skin tight jeans, and bracelets. Guess what? They're also dark!

Cool fact: Fast-paced music helps her to calm down and be cool. And, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but she's MrsEdFargo. MrsEdFargo a really irritating kid in my class. MrsEdFargo please put something into your profile about this. She is also very caring towards Lia.

_LIA_

Age: 11

Weapon(s): Two celestial bronze daggers.

Weapon origins: Used by one of the Hesperides, Hesperia. They are useful for quick and agile fighting styles.

History: Arrived at Camp Half-Blood a day after Ryan. Warmly welcomed by him. Ryan specially built another four-poster bed for her, with white-pink curtains.

Strengths: A very loyal heart and also a quick-thinking mind, being very truthful and innocent.

Weaknesses: Tends to cling on to Ryan the most, so leaving her alone really isn't an option.

Likes: Staying near Ryan (I think you would have figured this out by now), classical music and imaginary fairies.

Dislikes: Big, scary, frightening, sky-scraper monsters.

Favorite phrase: -NIL-

Appearance: Usually dressed in white, an over-sized cardigan, and a Grecian hairstyle (look it up on Google).

Cool fact: She trusts and is most caring towards Ryan. Her gymnastics are pretty darn good, too.

_CALYPSO_

Age: A few thousand years old, give or take a few years.

Strengths: Mind-sight, telekinesis, charm.

Weaknesses: -UNKNOWN UNTIL LATER PART OF STORY-

History: (Refer to story, I don't want to repeat. Too tired :D)

Likes: Flowers, singing, music.

Dislikes: The dark, the Titan wars

Favorite phrase: -NIL-

Appearance: A faint glow around body, a pure-white dress with laces, a circlet around wrist, a little tiara-like headdress.

Cool fact: She's very calm, except when facing monsters. She also has invincible servants. She also likes Ryan, which is why she chose him to create an empathy link with!

**Ok guys, the character(s) below are those that come up at a later part of the story then right now, where you're reading. So unless you've read all the chapters already, please go finish them. Then come back.**

_KAYLA_

Age: 12

Weapon: A spear, two meters long, gold-tipped, transforms into a stick of lipstick when capped.

Weapon history: Popped into her pocket when she was fighting classified winged creatures.

History: Refer to chapter 11.

Strengths: Being calm and collected. Explaining things.

Weaknesses: Talking to boys.

Likes: Looking beautiful, gossiping.

Dislikes: Girls that compete with her for boys.

Favorite phrase: -NIL-

Appearance: Anything that makes her look attractive.

Cool fact: She actually is good at combat, unlike most Aphrodite kids! Wow! Amazing!

_DAMIEN_

Age:10

Weapon: ...

History: His father apparently abandoned him at a young age, and his mother married his step-father, so he ran away from his cold home and to the streets to perform, eventually joining us on our quest.

Strength: His knowledge of Greek Mythology and Greek monsters from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

Weakness: Can be a little carried away sometimes, with his humor.

Likes: Music, just like Ryan. Being cool.

Dislikes: Boredom.

Favorite line: -NIL-

Appearance: Old Fitch T-Shirt, simple black pants and a cool Yankee's hat. Apparently he got the hat idea from Annabeth.

Cool fact: In the real world, he's Triton II, my cousin.

**-END OF FACTFILE-**

**If you guys want some elaboration on any other characters or more elaboration on one of the above mentioned characters, please mention it in your review. Thanks!**


	9. I Get A Quest Team

**To satisfy MadamEddieFarto and all you great readers out there, here is the next chapter. :D Don't forget to follow/favorite/review my story!**

The next day, I woke up really early. Lia was still dozing. I grabbed a backpack and stuffed my entire stock of nectar and ambrosia in. After packing in a few more things and brushing my teeth, I headed towards the big house. I 'glided' up onto the roof and just sat there, enjoying the early morning breeze and the nice scenery of Long Island Lake.

The naiads seemed especially active today. They were playing water polo with a bunch of seaweed. They were also grooming some migrating hippocampi. I must have been there for ages, because Lia also glided up onto the roof, looking for me. Startled, my first reaction was to open my lighning-shaped thumbdrive, which transformed into Boltstream.

"_Woah,_" Lia said. "It's just me."

"Oh, sorry 'bout that." I said, flustered.

"Why are you up here?" Lia said, brushing back her hair and sitting beside me.

"Oh, you know, just trying to enjoy our last few moments here at camp before we die."

She gave me a playful punch. "Don't be like that. I know this sounds cheesy, but you have to trust in yourself. All of us that are going. Oh _wait. _Who's going?"

"Good question." I propelled my self using a strong blast of air towards the beach, where Chiron always does his morning exercises. I asked him about the quest members, and he decided, "I'll ask for volunteers at breakfast."

So at breakfast, after all the offerings and things, Chiron said, "Alright, settle down. Okay. Who wants to come with Ryan on his quest?" Many hands shot up, especially those from the Apollo and Aphrodite cabins. Seeing this, Chiron continued, "Remember, going on a quest is a huge responsibility, and it's dangerous, and it's totally risky. Suffering and death aren't to uncommon, either."

All the hands dropped except three. YiYun, Dylan, and Lia. "Oh yeah, suffering. I could do that!" Dylan said. "Death. I've only been through too much," YiYun shouted from the Hades table at the back. Hearing this, Chiron said, "Anyone else? Five are supposed to embark on this quest." Everyone kept quiet. "No? This is weird. Alright then, I guess Ryan'll have to figure something out on the way. Fine it is. Ryan, Dylan, YiYun and Lia."

So there it is. My quest team.


	10. I Get A Pleasant Surprise

**Oh yeah, guys, you might actually want to check out the character factfile now. I've added some major changes.**

So we set out, and actually started looking in the woods. _Wow, _it was humid there. "Argh, stupid tree branches." Dylan said, swatting away one that had just whacked Dylan. An elfish face popped out of the tree. "Hey, I heard that mister." With an offended look, the dryad sank back into the tree trunk. We ventured on, and found Zeus' Fist. The Hephaestus cabin was working on the safety and security of the Labyrinth entrance. Moving on, we walked into a slightly swampy area. Argh, my sketchers! Blast it.

Then, the most magnificent willow tree I've ever seen appeared in front of us. "How… How did that just happen? I mean, if it was here we should have seen it from main camp or something." YiYun said. It also seemed pretty weird to me. But hey, half-bloods are supposed to do dangerous stuff, right? Puzzled, I walked around the tree trunk. I noticed a hole just big enough for a grown man to fit in. "Hey guys, over here!" I yelled to everyone. Without a second's hesitation, Lia jumped in.

"Hey! It's dangerous!" I screamed into the tree trunk.

"Don't worry, it's just a hollow tree-slide! Wheeeeeeeee…" Her voice faded as she slid down the slide.

"If she's going I'm going… TOO!" YiYun yelled as she hopped down the slide.

Dylan and I shrugged shoulders and climbed in as well. We slid down and down and down and down… It seemed like forever, really, and my bum was beginning to feel hot from all that sliding. We slid down for such a long time, in fact, that Dylan and I were playing catch-the-thumb-drive with Boltstream. We finally landed on some soft mattress. And the location, the dumpster. "Eww…" Lia complained.

"We're in… Las Vegas." Bright neon lights flashed all around us and taxis zoomed past us every now and then, containing heavily drunk people and chaps with downcast faces, probably after losing in a gamble. I've always hated Vegas. We walked around until we saw the biggest building in the entire street: The Lotus Casino. "So _that's _how it looks like." I said. I remembered this Casino, in the story of Percy Jackson.

For those of you who don't know, the Lotus Casino and Hotel is a trap. If you go in there, you feel like staying there forever. The thing is: you don't age there. You can stay there for a million years and you would still be the same age as you are now. YiYun seemed to be pretty well prepared. She passed us all these special Dr. Dre earpieces. "What? This is _not _the time for music, YiYun. Though I would enjoy some Maroon 5…"

"Gah, dimwit. This prevents you from getting into the Lotus Casino's trance. Okay, this is the plan. We get in there, act all happy and everything, so the hotel workers won't suspect a thing, eat some food, get some rest, and leave as calmly as possible tomorrow."

"Seems like a good plan."

So we entered. WOW. Jackpot machines, architecture-associated holographic images projected up from a dashboard, arcade games of all sorts lined the alley and party-goers danced, chatted and sashayed all the way down the alley. A beautiful girl wearing a lilac dress caught my eye. She had very flawless skin, and her expression looked like she was ready to care for anybody. I'd like to be that somebody. We shared glances, then she fluttered her eyelids, turned her head and sipped her drink. After getting a hearty meal from the buffet bar, we headed towards the games. YiYun settled for a shooting game, Lia went to the Fairy Princess World game, and Dylan went to a fortune-telling game. It wasted no time in telling him that it had seen the shortest life span it's ever seen. Instead, I hung out at the bar.

I looked at the girl in the lilac dress and noticed that she _too_ were wearing Dr. Dre earpieces. I strolled over to her and she asked me a simple question, "What is the date today?" I said, "8th August, 2012."

She stared intently at my face again. Her face didn't have a single blemish, a single flaw. I could feel some…. Some connection with her… But I just didn't know… "What's your name?" I finally picked up the courage to ask her that question. "Kayla," she answered, "Kayla Green."

"Goddess?" I asked again. She did seem to feel like Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who made anybody fall in love with her. Kayla definitely had that effect on me. "No, demigod. Daughter of Zeus." My mouth fell open. I said something really smart like, "Gah-blergh." My _stepsister? _My own sister? I fell in love with my own sister? I didn't have time to answer my own questions. I had fainted.


	11. Kayla's Story

I woke up with someone clutching my hand. It was Sandrine. I widened my eyes. "_Gaaah!" _I cried. I blasted a million bolts of electricity from my body. Everybody ducked quickly enough. Readjusting my focus, I realized that she was only Kayla. She looked more like a regular teenager now, wearing skin-tight jeans and a normal T-Shirt. "You again! My own stepsister!" Lia looked offended when I said that.

"No, I'm not your stepsister. I'm just a Californian daughter of Aphrodite."

"Then why did I hear- I mean- I heard you saying you were a daughter of Zeus."

"Oh well, can't help it sometimes, you know. Aphrodite kids have the power to charm people." I heaved a sigh of relief. So at least it would still be okay to fall in love with her. Lia, speaking in a louder voice than normal, said, "Alright guys, we've gotta get out of here already. We've still got a quest to finish. And Ryan, I've filled Kayla in on the details. I think… I think…"

"Kayla is the fifth quest member!" YiYun, Dylan and Lia said at the same time. "She agreed too," Lia added.

Kayla owned a gleaming spear, about two meters long. Its tip was gold. She poured some nectar down my throat. It was the most delicious thing I'd ever tasted and it seemed to heat every bit of me from the inside.

If Kayla was going to come along, I had to set some ground rules. "Okay, first of all, Kayla stops enchanting anybody. Especially me." She looked at me with her forget-me-not blue eyes. "Secondly, no sneaking off to put on makeup or go window shopping." I recalled the Aphrodite children in Camp Half-Blood staying in their cabins putting on makeup instead of going for camp activities. "Alright!" Kayla said ecstatically.

We then put our heads together to figure out a plan to escape. It was very simple, really. Kayla, me and Lia would cause a diversion. YiYun and Dylan would sneak out and cut off the power supply of the building. Then, the three of us in the building would dash for the exit.

At exactly 2 o'clock, we would carry it out. So, during the meantime, we repeated the plan over and over until we got it right word for word. During that time, I lay on my bed instead, replaying the most important moments of my life.

My first battle with a monster, the empousai. The moment I laid hands on Boltstream for the first time. The moment I got claimed, when everybody stared at me open-mouthed for being a kid of one of the big three. The next day, when Lia got claimed as a Zeus kid too. The day I got my first quest. Which wasn't too long ago.

Kayla sat down beside me. Immediately I fell into a deep trance again, and I felt very special. She said, looking at the ground with a slightly sad face. "My dad passed away when I was 10. Since then I took care of myself."

She sighed and continued, "My dad said that if I ever found anything strange about myself, to go to a special place called Camp Half-Blood." She moved a little closer and said, "But I never got the chance to. One night, when the wind was very strong, I opened my window and saw a few winged creatures. They immediately flew in and slashed at me with their claws. Suddenly, I had the urge to put my hand in my pocket. I fished in my pocket and found a stick of lipstick. I uncapped it, and it turned into a spear. My spear. After killing those creatures, I ran from my home and survived in the streets by my own. I was forced to go all the way here, and I found Lotus Casino. But before I entered, my mom, Aphrodite, popped up from the heavens and stopped me. She handed me this pair of earpieces. And this is my seventh day here."

She stopped and then a single tear worked its way down her cheek. She closed her eyes really hard and said, "I miss my dad. He was one of the most charmingly clever people I knew. He was always there for me." She sobbed harder and I actually felt extremely sorry for her. Maybe it was her powers again. Or maybe it was just me. I put an arm around her shoulder to comfort her.

Mysteriously, my Dr. Dre earpieces started playing "Secrets" by OneRepublic. Seemed like the right time for the song, too.

'_Till all my sleeves are stained red  
From all the truth that I've said  
Come by me honestly I swear  
Thought you saw me wink, no  
I've been on the brink, so_

_Tell me what you want to hear  
Something that will light those ears  
I'm sick of all the insincere  
I'm gonna give all my secrets away_

_This time,  
Don't need another perfect lie  
Don't care if critics jump in line  
I'm gonna give all my secrets away…_

After the song, Kayla burst into tears and put her head on my lap. She must have heard it, too. I think she chose the song. What kind of secrets does she have? Did she ever lie? I thought deeply…


	12. We Escape From THAT Casino

**HEY PEOPLE! Can you give me some REVIEWS or at least favorite this? Don't be anonymous people! Thank you! Hybrid3690 (formerly known as Chachasisi) out! XD**

Okay, so at 2 o'clock sharp, YiYun and Dylan packed pliers, wire-cutters and screwdrivers in their bags and headed downstairs first. Kayla and I followed three minutes later. We sneaked past the reception counter and headed to the VIP Jacuzzi. Once there, I impaled one of the Lotus staff through the waist and he disintegrated into red, angry dust. "Ew," I complained, "I've got nasty dust all over my nice, polished sword."

Kayla, realizing that running in platform sketchers and wearing pajamas was not a good idea, snapped her fingers and a blinding white light, like a camera flash, radiated from her. When my eyes readjusted, she was wearing a cheerleading shirt and pants. "_Gah,_" she said. "I wanted Levi's."

I slashed Boltstream wildly in the air and disintegrated a few more staff. Kayla uncapped her stick of lipstick. "Kayla, it's no time for lipstick!" I back-stepped as a room cleaner came charging at me, holding out his mop as if he were jousting. Now everyone came into the room, wondering what all the pandemonium was about.

In a second, Kayla was holding a spear in her hands. "Oh, I see now," I muttered. She kicked at the hotel manager with her heels, and he staggered back, green blood oozing from his belly. _Beware, _I thought, _Killer high-heels on the loose. Man, this kid can fight. _

The lights suddenly dimmed and the Jacuzzi stopped bubbling. YiYun and Dylan made it! We annihilated the last few hotel staff. But something was wrong. Very wrong. Where was Lia?

While people evacuated from the hotel, heaving sighs of relief because some of them were released from their several-thousand-year imprisonments. "Hey! There's someone in the bar! Someone help her get out!" A hippie-looking guy yelled. But no one except me heard in over the racket of everyone scrambling towards the hall.

I pushed and shoved against the current of people but it seemed to take forever. Fed-up, I sat on the floor in disappointment. Then I realized I could fly. Slapping my forehead for my stupidity, I zoomed over the whole masses of people. _Wow, _I thought, _that's a lot of trapped people. This hotel must have pretty good business, eh? _

Finally getting to the bar, I saw Lia, crouched in a corner, shivering, munching on a parcel of Hershey's chocolate. Once she saw me, she immediately sprang up and hugged me. She nudged me with her nose, saying 'oink' softly. After comforting my innocent, clueless, but now very happy sister, we set off for Kayla.

Once we reached her, I carried her by the back and Lia carried her legs so we could speed up our evacuation from the casino. We met Dylan and YiYun outside. Dylan was cracking old Greek jokes like, "A young Greek man excitedly tells his mother he's fallen in love and that he is going to get married. He says, "Just for fun, Ma, I'm going to bring over 3 women and you try and guess which one I'm going to marry." The mother agrees. The next day, he brings three beautiful women into the house and sits them down on the couch and they chat for a while. He then says, "Okay, Ma, guess which one I'm going to marry." She immediately replies, "The one on the right."That's amazing, Ma. You're right. How did you know?" The Greek mother replies "I don't like her."" YiYun immediately burst out in giggles.

Seeing all our usual antics, I smiled. Looks like I actually made a good choice for all my friends to come. Kayla flicked her hair. She was now adorned in a beautiful white sleeveless gown that went down to her ankles, golden highlights ran down her hair, delicate gold armbands entwined themselves around her biceps, and an intricate necklace of amber, gold and coral glittered around her neck. All of us stared at her open-mouthed. She looked ten times more beautiful now. I was actually glad she joined us now. Seeing that everyone now was back to normal, we set off into the sunset.


	13. We Go To The Burger Place

We found a decent hamburger place somewhere outside of Vegas. It had a huge revolving boar's head on the top, with an apple in its mouth, and a caterpillar in the apple, and- ah, you get the idea. Man, that would've made Ares angry. His sacred animal is the boar.

Inside, it was bustling with people. A fat lady sat at the counter, with a pencil tucked behind her ear, and she kind of reminded me of Marilyn Monroe, just a more obese version. People jostled around, some of them holding large tankards of brandy, some of them doing manly stuff like spitting on one another.

Kayla charmspoke (that's a rare Aphrodite-kid ability, where you enchant someone into doing what you say) and got half a dozen big, burly men to give their seats for us. After sitting down, the fat lady at the counter immediately popped up at our table. _That was pretty fast, _I thought, as we ordered our food. I studied my thumb-drive as I waited for my food. After polishing it up, Dylan slid over to me and whispered in my ear, "Ishezhehorshihsyiitunishreyl lekuze…"

"What?" I whispered back.

"Is it me or is it YiYun is getting cuter on our quest…" He whispered again, this time glancing around us to make sure we weren't heard.

"Erm… I guess, I haven't really noticed…" I said, not wanting to disapprove Dylan's opinion. When our food came, we all ate like ravens, except Lia, who crawled on my lap, and ate only a quarter of her food, like she always does. At this moment, the fat waitress spoke to Dylan and I, "Come to the ladies' washroom later, if you want some love advice." _Okay… _I thought, _a fat waitress-love-guru, what could be so hard?_

Puzzled, Dylan and I nodded our heads and finished eating. As soon as we were done, we asked to be excused so we could go to the washroom. Hesitatingly, we pushed the girl's bathroom door open and found ourselves in a fortune-teller-tent looking room. There, at a coffee table, sat a pretty woman, around her twenties. She was partially draped in hot pink shawls, and had smooth, combed back, jet-black hair. Without thinking, I said, "Aphrodite."


	14. The Happenings In The Room

Aphrodite said gently, "Sit down." Her voice was very dreamy. I guess this is how others felt when an Aphrodite child charmspeaks. I could tell that Dylan was thinking the same thing as I was: She's a man-eater. The Dr. Dre earpieces immediately played Man-eater by Nelly Furtado. _Not again,_I thought.

Aphrodite's beauty was bit… artificial. Tension was high in the room, like there was trouble up ahead, like the room was hanging in mid-air, waiting for the right moment to drop. Aphrodite said with a sweet gentleness in her voice, "Hello, I am Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty." She applied some mascara on a microscopic cosmetic error on her face. Then she continued, "Hello, Dylan, I have some news to tell you. Rather bad news, though. The one you are chasing is not the once you shall marry in the end. Sad waste of a cute face, that YiYun. Dylan, you are a sad excuse for a son of Poseidon." Dylan looked really offended.

"Wait, you can tell the future?" I asked the goddess. "Oh, Ryan. You _are _truly very cute. No, I can't tell the future. But I can guess well enough. Ah, it's boiling in here. " She snapped her fingers and was wearing a bikini next. Dylan and I tried not to stare. She giggled a little, and then stroked my cheek. She gave me a little grin, and continued, "Ah, looks like my child has a lover."

"What! No way!" I felt my cheeks reddening.

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you. Oh, toodles, I have to go!" She disappeared in a flurry of magical dust.

Then, mist swirled and swirled inside the room until I almost couldn't see a thing. A sound like a cannon fired. Then, I noticed a pair of glowing red eyes staring at me. And another. And another. Soon, I was surrounded with at least twenty pairs of eyes, all glowering at Dylan and I. I took Boltstream out instinctively.

**Kayla's Point Of View**

The fat lady walked away and Lia crawled on Ryan's lap. _Oh, how I wish I were Lia. _I thought, deep inside my heart. _If I could just get closer to Ryan… _Then Dylan and Ryan left the table.

I sighed and stared absent-mindedly outside the window. It hurts to be a kid of Aphrodite. I mean, everyone falling head-over-heels for you, and when there's someone you actually likes, he thinks that you're just charming him. Life isn't always fair. This thought has woven itself into most of my dreams, turning them into nightmares.

"Hey," YiYun said. "Hi…" I replied, not really paying attention.

"I saw how you looked at Ryan just now." She said, a little smile playing on her lips.

I must have looked pretty flustered, because I replied, "Er…no, not at all… Er, just, tired, that's all." But it didn't make any sense.

YiYun opened a locket, and looked at the pictures of the two people in it. She gave a suppressed sigh, and said, "I guess… I'll never be with him again… The first person I ever-" She caught herself and looked at me with a troubled look. "I know how it feels." I muttered. Part of me wanted to find out who that other person in the locket was. Then I heard a really loud _BOOM. _It seemed like everyone in there was used to hearing a cannon fire every now and then, because they all acted like nothing happened. Must be the mist. And…the sound seemed to come from the ladies' washroom. I decided to go investigate.

**Ryan's POV**

When the mist cleared, I realized who those sets of eyes belonged to. _Hellhounds. _Dylan screamed unbelievably similarly to a girl's scream, and ducked under Aphrodite's love guru table.

I slashed at a hellhound, and it simply pounced backwards. "A little help would be good now, dad!" I yelled. Nothing happened. "Thanks for the help."

I almost slashed at a particularly young-looking hellhound when it yelped in fear and backed into a corner. It would have seemed cute to me, if not for its blood-thirsty siblings. A big hellhound lunged at me and I smacked it with the flat of my blade. It poofed into red dust. _One down, nineteen to go. _The dogs seemed to take the fight slowly. They were attacking me one-by-one. I conjured a bolt of white-hot lightning and killed three more. But there were too many. I didn't know whether I could win. The biggest hellhound pounced at me.

I would have been turned into hellhound chow if not for Kayla's spear. It had struck the evil dog in the chest and disintegrated it. Kayla joined me and we fought back-to-back. It seemed like all my battles would be with her. I sent a ripple of air towards about five, and they all tumbled backwards and disintegrated. At this moment, a particularly big hellhound raced towards Kayla and scratched her side. Now, a big, gaping, angry red wound was showing at her waist. I brought down Boltstream upon that fierce hound in my rage and annihilated him. Killing off the rest, I brought attention to Kayla. Dylan crawled out from his hiding place, the coward.

I dug out a barbeque-flavored ambrosia square from my pocket and fed it to her. She let out a soft relieved sigh and swooned. I caught her, laid her gently on the floor and got a bottle of nectar for her. I tipped some of it down her throat. Dylan raced outside to call the oblivious YiYun and Lia in.

I wrapped Kayla's entire waist with one of the draping curtains to staunch the bleeding. In a few minutes, she jolted to a start. A wave of magic swept over us and I didn't notice the difference until YiYun laughed out loud at me. Looking at myself, I was actually… Handsome. All of us seemed to have a personal makeover from Kayla.

Lia was adorned in a white gown, which looked great on her, and her hair was tied back in a ponytail. She also had white nail polish on.

YiYun shrieked when she saw herself in a mirror. She was wearing a bright orange shirt and pants, and she had pink gloves on. I had to admit, that looked attractive, yet ridiculous on her. She was the daughter of _Hades. _Children of Hades don't go well with pink.

Dylan and I, regardless to say, looked exceedingly handsome, while Kayla, well, she was still in her gown, although the hole was now patched up. I still couldn't help laughing about YiYun's attire. That _totally rocked. _"Mmph…" Kayla muttered. "R…ryg…ry..a…"

"Hey Ryan, I think she's calling you." Dylan whispered in my ear.

I went over and squeezed her hand. She squeezed my hand back. After a few seconds, I realized she was using Morse code. One long squeeze. Two short ones. One… She said in Morse: I'm happy with you.


	15. It's Not Everyday You Get To Have A Pet

We camped out at a roadside, nothing but our sleeping bags and a little campfire. I looked at Kayla one last time before I fell asleep. _That's weird, _I thought. _This seems so déjà vu. It's as if… I've seen her before. But I just can't remember when._

I fell asleep three seconds after my head touched the pillow. Then I had a dream. Argh…why don't I ever get _normal _dreams?!

I was back on the island again, but this time in Calypso's room. She was writing her diary. My dream zoomed towards her diary. It read:

DAY 30,348 OF MY CURSE

Dear Diary,

Loads has been happening since I've written last night. I saw this strange beast, it had multiple heads on its body. It had emerged from the ocean. I was so terrified, I rushed into my dwelling immediately. The water was cold when I bathed. Looks like winter again. I'd better warm up my garden.

I wonder if Ryan has received my empathy link. I think so. He should be on his way now. I'm still trying hard to communicate with him. But I'm sensing something. I think Ryan's luck shall not be so great on his quest. Oh, I do hope he makes it here alive.

I certainly feel that I've made the right choice. He's the one that's going to save me. NO MORE HEART-BREAKING NOW, FATES! HA!

Mood: Confident

I rubbed my bleary eyes after waking up. I froze. A huge jet-black drakon was sleeping right next to our camp. It had wings. Panic took over me. I nudged Lia and she woke up, too. She opened her mouth to scream but I clamped it shut. Shivering in fright, she crawled into my sleeping bag and hid there. I silently slipped my sleeping bag off, and went to alert YiYun. She almost screamed too, but caught herself.

She looked at her clothes. She must have been thinking, _Gah, I'm still pretty. _I grabbed her hand and led her towards the dragon. She was the expert on mythological animals, after all. She put her finger on her lips, and then walked quietly towards the drakon. I noticed she was clutching a clump of grass in her hand.

She patted the drakon's snout, and it opened its eyes slowly. She froze for a moment when she looked into its eyes. She then proceeded to tickle its nose with the grass. _What are you doing! _I thought desperately. _What if it barbeques you with a flamethrower sneeze! _

But she took the situation into her hands calmly. If drakons could giggle, this one did. It stood up and I saw that it was only the size of a mini-van. Pretty small for a drakon. It swallowed the grass and gave the both of us a contented smile. It nudged my pocket with its nose.

I realized it wanted the Mars candy bar I had stashed in there. "You want it? Go get it!" I threw the bar as far as I could, with a touch of strong air blasting against it as well. It ran and ran and ran, but midway, something extraordinary happened. It sort of melted down and transformed into a sleek, black Lamborghini, then sped off at like, 200 miles per hour.

"I didn't know drakons could do that," I told YiYun.

The drakon returned half a minute later, and transformed back, and it struggled with the caramel stuck to its teeth. I guess this drakon was pretty friendly. We could keep him.


	16. My Single Eyed Pal

After waking the rest up, ("This is _so _cool!") I decided that this friendly drakon would be our mode of transport. It seemed to like us too. We all tried to get on but unfortunately, it could only take three of us at one go. We settled on Dylan, Kayla and YiYun riding it and Lia and I flying along. However, something was missing. Ah! The drakon's name!

Lia thought of 'Strawberry'.

YiYun suggested 'Trashcan'.

Lia thought 'Cupid' would be suitable.

At last we decided to call it 'Nightrack'. It bounced around happily after hearing its new name, and gave its name a ceremonial ritual by setting fire to my pants. Dylan summoned a stream of water to extinguish the flame. "Bad drakon," I scolded it. "No more pants on fire." It stared at the ground, guilty.

We packed our sleeping bags and changing into new clothes and Lia and I prepared for launch. After Nightrack, carrying Dylan, Kayla and YiYun, took off, Lia, clutching my hand tightly, and I, used a jet of air to propel both of us forward.

After about two hours or so, I started to feel tired. My limbs were aching. Lia seemed to be more of dragging herself along than propelling herself. I had to carry her in the end. I shouted ahead, "Hey guys! Land in that cave! Take twenty!"

We landed in a cave carved in the side of a mountain. We stayed near the entrance of the cave instead of heading deeper in, where there would definitely be more chambers. We all sat down and Lia's tummy rumbled. Followed by Kayla's. "You guys hungry?" They both nodded. "I'll figure something out for you guys." Lia wearily laid her head on my shoulder. Out of jealousy, Lia laid hers on my lap. The campfire we lit there burned out eventually.

Suddenly, there was a feminine voice. "Help!" It screamed. I recognized it. It was Sandrine's voice. You know, the girl from the Apollo cabin. She ended up throwing burritos at me one day, but that's another story. "Help!" She screamed again. Dylan jumped up to his feet immediately. He raced off into the cave. "Back in a sec!" He yelled.

Out of the blue, another manlier voice echoed through the cave. "Aargh!" It shouted. I didn't recognize it this time. YiYun's ear perked up and she too dashed off into the cave. "Hey, don't go in there until Dylan comes out, it might be dangerous."

"No, it's okay, I'm just going in to check for a while."

They didn't come out for a while. After some time, I smelt the smell of smoke. I gently excused myself from the sleeping Kayla and Lia and crept into the inner cave, uncapping Boltstream. I walked and walked for what seemed like eternity. It soon got so dark that I couldn't even see a foot ahead of me. Only Boltstream's faint glow led me all the way forward.

At last, I reached the end of the cave. There was a crack there. Light and smoke poured out from it. I slid inside and squinted my eyes because of the sudden burst of light all around me. I tried to take in what I saw.

I was standing in a room, but a huge one. And I also was standing at the base of a _giant _cauldron. So that's where the smoke was coming from. And I'm not kidding when I say 'giant'. It made the Eiffel Tower look like a small mouse. I couldn't see what was above the cauldron. It was simply too tall.

Then, there was also the big guy. That was so tall his head banged against the ceiling. He was wearing a "Cooking Mama" apron, which would have been pretty hilarious if he didn't have the spiky collar around his neck.

He tilted his head enough so I could see he had…only one eyeball? A Cyclops! I staggered back in horror. So this was the Cyclops that imitated Dylan and YiYun's close friends so that he could lure them here! Cyclopes were famous for their abilities to imitate voices. _They must be hanging somewhere above the cauldron, _I thought. I propelled myself silently to the top of the dining table, so I could see Dylan, YiYun and an old man suspended above the cauldron by a rope.

Dylan's face was awkwardly close to YiYun's. He was grinning to himself, proud that he'd managed to get so close to her. The old man, however, was unconscious. He was wearing glasses and looked like a professor. The Cyclops was humming to himself while he cut up vegetables to be thrown in together with Dylan, YiYun and the old man.

YiYun made an effort to talk the Cyclops into letting them go. "C'mon, we're too skinny. Wouldn't be too appetizing. I mean, you wouldn't want bits of Dylan's bones getting stuck in your teeth, right?" Dylan looked at her, looking even more offended than at Aphrodite's statement.

"Not so, my little pretty one." I'd forgotten YiYun was still attractive. "I plan to have fresh meat tonight. Nothing like stewed humans. Mm-mm. I don't want any lamb anymore. I'm sick of the taste. Sent from my cousin, Polyphemus." He gestured to a fridge in the corner. "That's my only store of nice foods. Cheese, beef, these things. I don't eat them very often. I have to go on a diet, anyway." He patted his bulging belly.

I felt my head throb a little. And then a sharper pain at both of my temples. And finally the pain went away. However, I could feel some new strange, foreign power in me. In my brain, specifically. I reached out both of my hands and pointed them at the Cyclops.

He suddenly turned towards me. He tried to lift his leg, but couldn't control it. It was me who did that. I made him slap himself, and his hand did it only too willingly. Then, I made him sit in the cauldron, and free the three prisoners, and put them on the table.

After untying them, I looked at the Cyclops, stewing himself in the cauldron. But I decided not to be so evil. I made him dig himself out of the cave, and planted an idea in his mind, telling him it would be a good idea to return to his mommy Cyclops. I let go of my new power. A voice echoed in my head after I had done that, "Good job, Ryan!" It was Calypso. YiYun and Dylan tried to explain to me what happened, but I told them I knew already. The old man was still unconscious. I led everybody back to the entrance of the cave and Kayla and Lia immediately came to help us carry the old man.


	17. Kindergarten memories

**Oh yeah guys, I've updated my chapter 'I Get A Quest Team' a little bit. Nothing too major. Again, Fav, Rev, Follow!**

I thought Kayla was pretty in the casino. Then after escaping, I thought she looked like an actress I knew. At the Boar Burger, we _had _to be related in some way or another. It's just…her face is unforgettable. I've definitely seen her before…but where…

I mean, I definitely noticed her staring at me during our meal at the Boar's Burger, like she was studying every detail of my face, but she turned away when I glanced in her direction.

**Kayla's POV**

I still felt a little woozy after my first ride on a drakon. But at least my blood stopped flowing out of my wound like a waterfall. _You will survive, _I told myself. Unfortunately, I heard those people that laugh in sitcoms, laughing behind my back. Hmph.

I thought Ryan was familiar at the casino, but then I realized that we had once met. In kindergarten. Now, I know kindergarten is a place where children scream and run and play and pull one another's hair, but we were actually friends. _Is it fate? _You ask. Probably. It all started on the morning of the first day.

I said my truckload of goodbyes to my dad and walked confidently out to the street. _The first day of school… Wow! That is so cool! _I thought excitedly. After walking a few steps, a car pulled up beside me. "Hop in!" The cheery mother in the car invited. "Might as well give you a ride. You look so _cute!_ Are you from Springform?" I nodded my head. "Oh, then you two will be going to school together!" I wondered who the other person was. I stepped in nervously.

"Hey, what are you so nervous for? I'm Ryan! I've made the world better since I was born!" He had electrifyingly blue eyes, and I realized my eyes were also the same color. Wait, why was I even trying to spot the similarities between us? His mother hit the gas pedal and the car lurched forward.

"Please, try not to come to near me. I may cause some…mayhem." He finished his sentence, hesitating a little, like trying to figure out whether he should have told me that or not. At that moment, his mother made a sharp swerve around a bend. I gave a little yelp and my whole body tumbled towards Ryan. "Oof…" He said quietly. "Sorry about that! I saw a squirrel!" Ryan's mother shouted from the driver's seat. She seemed like a really happy person. "Are you okay?" He asked. "Yeah," I said. Then, I noticed I was holding his hand. His cheeks were reddening. I hope mine weren't too.

"I thought all girls were terrible." He said after a moment of awkward silence. Then my shoulder touched his. There was a little _crack, _a static spark. "Sorry, I kinda have electrical highs when I have emotional highs as well." Then he stared at the ground, obviously regretting he had said that.

When we reached the kindergarten, I was kinda disappointed that I wasn't in any of the classes he was in. I even went so far as to ask my form teacher to transfer myself into his class.

I caught him drawing a picture during break time. It was a very detailed lightning bolt. But there was a fairy behind it. "Really? A fairy?" I asked, laughing. He looked at me as though I was crazy. Which isn't so hard to imagine. He glowered at me. "It's a harpy! You will regret this!" Looking at his serious and solemn face, I quickly said, "No, no, fairies. Very macho. Suits you."

He actually giggled at my comment. That charming giggle. Sounds ridiculous, I know. A _charming _giggle. "Harpies!" He testified.


	18. The Everlasting Lamp

**Hi chaps, I'm sorry about the terrible delay. I've been very…busy. Anyway, I hope you guys like it. Don't forget to visit my 2****nd**** PJO story, The Gaekku School Mysteries. Enjoy!**

Okay, so maybe exploring a Cyclops' den isn't exactly my idea of fun. Dylan and I decided to check out the Cyclop's fridge to get some food for everyone. The next morning. My tummy grumbled at the thought of good food. I'd missed the barbeque at Camp Half Blood…

Both of us did a bit of accidental exploring; we couldn't help but to wonder what size of boxers do Cyclops wear. Anyway, we put a lot of meat and cheese and all the goodies into a foldable duffel bag YiYun had brought along. I just couldn't wait to go back and cook it.

When we reached the entrance of the cave, the old man was finally conscious. He was wrapped up in one of Dylan's blankets. Everyone was huddling around a fire. "Food!" Lia jumped up and helped us with the duffel bag. We roasted some lamb while we listened to the old man tell his own story. I don't think Lia was listening. She was too busy tending the fire and licking her lips.

"Well, it all started when I was a still a young man. When I was at a feast in Texas, I made friends with another man about the same age as me. We laughed and talked. In the end, he asked me whether he could spend a night in my house. 'Sure,' I told him. The next morning, he had left without a word. He left a note on the dining table, and it went a little something like this:

Dear Fredrick,

Thank you so much for letting me spend a night in your humble home.

With lots of gratitude, I shall in turn give you a present. It's my lamp.

This special lamp's flame never goes out, not until it is needed to go out, anyway.

I hope that you will pass this lamp to the ones you may find suitable,

And I promise you the ones that you give the lamp to will succeed in their current endeavors.

Once again, thank you so much for your hospitality!

The lamp he was talking about was sitting on the table, its flame giving out a warm, faint glow."

"So, why are you telling us this?" I asked him.

"Well, I believe that the time is right for you young lads to take my lamp!" He replied.

"Ryan, this is the lamp from the prophecy! Tell me, sir, do you happen to be a teacher? A wise one?" Kayla asked.

"Why, yes! I'm currently a senior teacher from Oxford University!"

"Oh, great! Can you show us the lamp?"

The old man dug around in his robes for a while until he found the lamp. Intricate carvings on the lamp made it look very fragile. The carvings were about Greek folk rejoicing about certain things, like a good harvest, or good weather. Otherwise, it looked like a regular kerosene lamp. I took it from him and looked at the flame inside it. It was burning a brilliant orange, like a speck from the Sun. I thanked him profusely.

Once the lamb was roasted and ready to eat, we divided the portion equally. Then we threw food into the fire, except for the old man. _To the gods! _I imagined Chiron saying. We all ate like ravens. After licking our plates clean, a bit of cheese was handed out to everyone.

We all packed up after eating and rested for a while. We simply couldn't afford anyone throwing up their breakfast when riding on Nightrack. Upon seeing Nightrack, the old man exclaimed, "Are you kids even old enough to drive a Dodge Viper?!"

After a while more, we said goodbye to the old man as he headed down the mountain. Clambering onto Nightrack's back, we flew off into the sunrise.


	19. A New Addition To The Team

We touched down somewhere in Chicago, in an alley. Upon landing, Nightrack immediately morphed into a cute puppy. _A hellhound,_I thought. Oh! So Nightrack was one of the hellhounds in Aphrodite's ladies' washroom. And also a drakon at the same time. Lia squealed when she saw Nightrack's puppy form and immediately carried and hugged it. Nightrack placed a paw on Lia's forehead experimentally. "He's so _cute!_"

We let Nightrack cuddle in Lia's backpack and set off down the streets. Floral boutiques, hair dressers, and towering offices lined the streets. We also saw an occasional street performer. I looked at all of us to check that we weren't out of place in this bustling city. The Aphrodite curse finally wore off all of us. Or should it be Aphrodite blessing? I wasn't too sure.

We passed by a little boy, maybe 10, playing his keyboard and singing on the streets, with a little briefcase opened in front of him. An occasional passer-by would walk pass and casually drop money into his briefcase, but no-one stopped to watch. We stood in front of him while he sang 'One Thing' by One Direction. He was pretty good for a street performer. Just then, Nightracked yipped and hopped out of Lia's backpack. He transformed back into drakon mode upon landing on the pavement. "Nightrack! You're not supposed to go randomly transforming in public!" He whimpered.

Everybody stood around and admired Nightrack, like he was a piece of Picasso. "Maserati…." Some of them would mutter. "Lamborghini…"Others would whisper to one another.

"Mommy! A cool car just appeared out of nowhere!" A little boy told his mother excitedly as they walked past.

"That's very nice dear," his mother replied, obviously not very concerned.

"You named your dragon Nightrack?" The street performer asked inquisitively.

"Wait… You can see him?" Dylan asked.

"Sure I can! So it's a he? Your dragon?" This boy was definitely not a regular mortal. He could see through the mist.

"It's a _drakon_. Not a dragon. Well, a bit more dangerous and reckless that a dragon."

"Wait, a drakon? Like from Rick Riordan's books? Like the one Percy Jackson encountered?"

"You read Percy Jackson? Yeah, well. Nightrack's also a drakon."

"That is _so cool_! Does this mean that empousai, dracanae and real Greek gods and goddesses exist too?" This must have been a pretty big blow to this kid. I know how this feels too. I've experienced it. Well, all demigods have. One moment, your entire life is dedicated to studying, working, earning money, surviving the world. The next, you're thrown into a world full of monsters, titans, giants, and _a lot _of Greek mythology.

"Yeah, they exist. So does Percy. And Annabeth."

"Oh…oh…wow….just….wow…." The street performer stuttered, at a loss for words.

"You got a name?" I asked.

"Yeah, Damien!" He said proudly. "Hey, guys, you mind if I follow you? I mean, I won't be too much trouble. Why are you even here, anyway?"

"We're here on a quest. I guess you can follow us, mortals aren't considered an addition to a quest team."

"This is sweet! I am _so _high now! Whee!" Damien exclaimed.

We all got onto Nightrack when everyone had gone and took off to find some shelter for the night. "I feel so alive!" Damien exclaimed as we flew over Chicago. I waved to the pedestrians way below us, thinking, _Hey everyone! This is what we kids do everyday! _A few gasped and pointed to us. We finally landed infront of a humble motel and checked ourselves in. Nightrack morphed into a light briefcase and we carried him into the room. After introducing ourselves, Damien started reciting funny quotes from the Percy Jackson books, and I had a feeling it was going to be a restless night.


	20. Surprise, surprise

I was pretty pleased with all of us when we fulfilled the 'lamp' part of the prophecy, I admit. But, my happiness was _really _short-lived. Being a demigod, things almost _never _go right for you.

When we woke up, we packed our things, checked out of the motel and headed down the street to explore Chicago a little bit more. In a neat and proper hat shop, we browsed and saw all funny sorts of hats. Big ones with large feathers on the top lined the shelves, classic cowboy hats filled the display racks, even those sort of black wool caps you often see on robbers were at a special discounted price. But most of them looked second-hand or really clapped-out.

Suddenly, an image shimmered into existence in front of me, and I could feel cool, fine mist spraying onto my face: an Iris message. Chiron had sent it. I had totally no idea what the other mortals in the shop would see if they saw it, and I did _not _want to find out, so I quickly ducked out of the store and ran behind it. Of all days, my blocked nose didn't come on that day. Large bags of garbage were piled up almost as high as the store, and lots of fish bones and plastic bags littered the ground. Not exactly an environmentalists' dream destination.

"Chiron! What is it?" I asked, pretty freaked out by his sudden appearance.

"Oh, sorry Ryan, just part two of your prophecy, I thought you might want to know." He said calmly. I opened my eyes as big as I could. "What do you mean, part two?"

"I just happened to be chatting with Rachel two days ago, and she shifted into Delphi mode, and started reciting what seems to be part two of your prophecy. Pretty sudden, I know. But it's the prophecy, and hey, you can't work around prophecies."

"Then can you tell it to me?"

"Of course, it would be my pleasure." Chiron cleared his voice, and used his 'teaching voice' to recite:

"_But that is not the end, my friends,_

_The quest will be no mean feat._

_To fight the god who has selfish wants,_

_And a titan's child you must beat._

_Find the five muses' daughters,_

_In a room filled with sound._

_And a life must definitely be lost,_

_Until the maiden can be found."_

"'A life must definitely be lost'… I don't like the sound of that." I muttered nervously.

"Neither do I, child. Neither do I. Well, that's all for now. I've got to do some solid music meditation." Chiron slotted a Dean Martin CD into his boombox and I immediately heard a bunch of old men moaning in Latin. The Iris message totally evaporated and I was standing by myself in the smelly mini-junkyard of a hat shop.


	21. Korean Muses?

**Hey guys, just telling you, I just edited chapter 7, so go check it out. And also, I've just added Damien into the Character Fact-file! And edited Dylan's fact-file a little. My mom just gave me some story-writing tips so I'm sure I can give you guys a better reading experience.**

So, not _everyone _was pleased. Everyone except Damien, actually. Since he just joined us, he was pumped and tried to sound upbeat. "Hey guys, more adventuring. Why the sad faces? C'mon, cheer up!" Then he did something really unexpected. He bent down, frowned, and then started hopping around, beating his hindquarters and saying in a sing-song voice, "Crazy horse! Craaazy horse!" I would later learn that this was his signature move, but at that moment, all I was concerned about was trying to make sure nobody thought I was related to him.

A few moments later, we were standing right outside a huge arena. A long queue snaked from the front doors, mostly consisting of excited teenagers and bored parents that were chaperoning their hyperactive kids. A poster was plastered right next to the doors that read:

Come see the Wonder Girls!

Be amazed by their spectacular performances right here, at the Chicago Great Stage!

Then there was a picture of five girls posing, with their names below them. "Hey, that one looks like Lia!" Damien said, jumping up and down excitedly, pointing at the girl whose name apparently was Sohee. Dylan, Kayla and YiYun nodded their heads in agreement.

I noticed something at the bottom right of the poster. The Greek letter _'μ'_, which was the letter 'M' in English. "That's funny." I wondered out loud.

"What is?" Lia hopped to my side and asked.

"Look, _mu." _I hoped I pronounced the letter correctly.

"That's the Muses' symbol." Dylan, the well-read one, told me.

"Strange much?" I asked everyone.

A few minutes later, we stood in the parking lot of the Great Stage, right outside the backstage access door, where two security guards were guarding it. I lead Nightrack to a parking lot and he understood. He transformed into a Porsche promptly.

"We need a distraction. Attack plan Macedonia." I whispered. Damien scratched his head. "Macedonia?"

"Damien," I whispered in his ear, "you have to help us by distracting those guards!" His eyes brightened. "Are you kidding? Let's get this started!" He skipped over to the security guards and began doing the 'Crazy Horse'. Interesting kid.

The security guards were directing all their attention to Damien, and looking at him as if they were figuring out how to get him to a mental institute. We crept behind the guards and in two quick shoulder jabs, Lia had them unconscious. "Good job!" I praised Lia. Her cheeks immediately turned red.

We grabbed the backstage passes pinned on the security guards' shirts and proceeded through the door. The passage was like a maze. We had taken a few wrong turns and even ended up in a room filled with Styrofoam wrappers once. However, in the end, we found the Wonder Girls' dressing room. We entered cautiously. Shiny, silver jackets hung up on the walls. A pink grand piano sat in the middle of the room. Lyres, harps, violins, guitars…. Instruments of all sorts hung all around the room. The five girls we saw earlier in the poster were at their makeup tables, cautiously applying makeup for their upcoming performance.

Their eyes widened then they saw us. "What are you doing here?! Autographs after concert!" The girl called Sun exclaimed in a funny Korean accent. Then Sohee, at the back, closed her eyes and walked up to me. "Son of Zeus, sister." She opened her eyes and examined us. She smiled. "In fact, all demigods. Powerful ones. Except him." She pointed to Damien.

"Sorry to intrude." I said. "But we're on a quest. Just asking, do you Muses happen to know anybody called Calypso? And where she is?"

"Calypso! Yes! Pirates of the Carribean!" Sun said happily.

I smacked my forehead. "No, no, daughter-of-Atlas Calypso."

"I do." Sohee said. "But first, you must spend some time here."


	22. I Got The Powah!

I had actually liked the idea of staying a while longer with the muses to talk, but that was before I fainted.

The rest of the gang were sitting in the dressing room chilling, listening to Damien play the Grand Piano. Sohee and the other Wonder Girls had brought me into a room that was filled with shoes. Charles & Keith, KiKi, Marie Claire and tons of other shoes of different brands lined the shelves. I didn't quite like it. Sun poured us all glasses of Orangina. So anyways, we sat down in the middle of the room and talked.

"So, what do you girls want to talk about?" I asked inquisitively.

"Oh, we need to ask of you a favor. An extremely tiny favor." The girl called YuBin replied. The way she said it, the favor didn't seem so tiny. "Then we will tell you where Calypso is."

"You girls are immortal. I'm a demigod. Why don't you girls go?"

"We're not strong enough to fight Hades, that's why." I almost spit out the Orangina that I was drinking.

"What?! Hades?! Man, he's the god of death. I'm the demigod of epic proportions. But I'm no match for him."

"We saw you single-handedly take down a full-grown cylops." They pointed out.

"I don't even know how _I _did that!" I insisted.

"Well, we _could _give you a power to aid you on your quest." My ears pricked up.

"What power?"

"The power of unleashing music." They replied. I had to admit, having the power to blast out Gangnam Style at any one point of time _was _going to be cool.

"Okay, bring on the power!"

Suddenly, the entire room began to glow. The white paint on the walls reflected the light so it got even brighter. At last it was so bright I had to cover my eyes with my hands and _still _ that wasn't enough. Then I blacked out.


	23. Testing 123

"Oh, hey, he's coming around." YiYun was leaning over my bed, dabbing a wet towel on my forehead.

I opened my eyes slowly. "For how long was I out?"

"Half an hour," Kayla replied, walking towards me.

"Where are the muses?" I asked.

"We're here." I sat up and saw them tuning their instruments for their performance later, on the long sofa. "Ryan, we want you to try something. Think of…your favorite song."

I did, and immediately Payphone by Maroon 5 blasted out of nowhere and filled the room. My friends all looked around for the source of the music, and it seemed like the music was coming from…me.

I clenched my fist instinctively and the music stopped. The muses smiled. "Looks like it worked this time."

"What do you mean, this time?" I asked.

"Well, the last time we tried this on a mortal, he blacked out for 4 days straight and still didn't get the power." I didn't feel too comfortable being the guinea pig for the second test.

"So… I guess I have to go stop Hades from rampaging now?" The muses nodded their heads.

"No biggie, just going off to kill the God of Death here…"

I walked out of the room with my friends without saying goodbye to the muses.


	24. I Love California

Okay, so maybe I was a little disrespectful to walk out of the place like that. I mean, it's like walking towards my grave, you know? I'm going to fight Hades, after all.

As we strolled down the corridor, I heard a voice call me. "Hey, Ryan," I turned and saw YiYun walking towards me. I must have looked really depressed at that point of time, because she said, "Don't worry about it. You have us. Trust us." This was the second time that someone had said this to me, the first time said by Lia. YiYun turned around to face the rest of the quest team. "Right guys?" Dylan gave me the thumbs up, Damien gave me a really cheesy smile and Lia asked "Huh? What?"

Moments later, we were soaring through the air, towards California, where the Muses told us we would find Hades. Through the flight, the rest of the team were requesting songs, now that I had my new power. Nightrack almost fell asleep when I played a classical piece, dropping down suddenly in mid-air and giving everyone a heart attack. We landed down in California at night.

We found an abandoned hut a few miles away from the city, so we decided to camp there. It wasn't all dirty, had no proper facilities and was rather small. Dusty, moth-eaten curtains hang from the windows, giving the place an eerie look. "Ryan…this place is spooky…" Damien complained. "Hey, don't worry, I'll be up all night talking to you about Percy Jackson, alright?" Dylan suggested. The two of them seemed to be good friends already. Damien gave Dylan a wide smile. "Alright guys, we'll take shifts, for guard duty. Something doesn't feel right about this place."

I was doing the first shift, while everyone was fast asleep. I was walking around everyone, holding my sword in front of me, which cast a faint glow, so that I could see. Damien was slumped on the couch, with his mouth hanging open. I guess he had forgotten about talking to Dylan about Percy Jackson. Lia and Kayla cuddled together for warmth, sleeping in their sleeping bags on the floor. Nightrack was off hunting for the night. Then, I realized something. YiYun wasn't in the wooden hut. Panicking, I ran in and out of the wooden hut, searching every nook and cranny for her.

"YiYun!" I screamed. "YiYun!"

Then, I heard a voice. It was as terrible as fingernails against a chalkboard, and so deep that it could be compared to an ocean. Somehow. I could understand it roughly though. "Looking for someone?" It asked. I was too frightened to answer. The curtains of the windows of the hut swayed left and right rapidly. The scary voice laughed. Not like a comedy show laugh, more like laughing at a person you hate making a terrible mistake.

"I will get my own temple in Camp Half-Blood, and make all the demigods bow before me!" The voice laughed again. "My daughters and sons will all help me construct it, and they will be in charge of everything in Camp Half-Blood!"

Just then, it occurred to me: YiYun was gone. The voice said that his (or her) sons and daughters will help with the temple and Camp Half-Blood. YiYun was a daughter of Hades. Therefore, The evil voice was Hades' voice. I realized that I may have learnt problem-solving in school for a reason.

When I was thinking about this, a portal set in the doorway of the hut opened. "Be my guest. Jump into the portal. You may save YiYun. Probably not, though. I will rid of you, like I have always wanted to, to the sons and daughters of Jupiter."

I jumped in the portal.


	25. The Rescue Mission

It was like falling through that whole in the willow tree trunk all over again. It was such a long ride that I decided to contemplate the meaning of life. Then I thought, _Hades had told me that he wanted to wipe all the sons and daughters of Jupiter off the face of the earth. Wouldn't that offend Jupiter, then? And why was Hades talking like a Roman? Jupiter? More like Zeus._

Eventually I came to a bumpy landing before landing in front of two large gates. I recognized these gates. I'd seen them before on a field trip with my fellow campers to the underworld. Hades' palace. I looked behind me, expecting to see a swirling vortex of purple. But all there was in its place was hot, underground dirt. I tried flying. It didn't work. Not in the underworld.

The gates had intricate carvings on them. Various pictures of amusing yet terrifying ways to die filled the gates. Burning alive on a stake, with monks poking you with spears. Soldiers beating you with whips, to which spikes were added to. Rolling down a hill in a human-sized hamster ball off a cliff, which was my personal favorite. Some of the carvings were even moving, showing disgustingly life-like scenarios of death. I tried to stare at the ground to avoid looking at the gates anymore. Two guards, both whom I had not noticed before, stood beside the gates. Both of them looked like deformed humans. One had an extra neck. The other had another half of a chest. I flinched at the sight of them.

"Open the gates," I ordered one of them. He just roared menacingly back at me. I revealed to him Boltstream, its power clearly radiating in golden waves.

"I said, open the gates." The guard reluctantly agreed to do it. He laid his scarred and bruised hand on one of the gates. The gate burned his hand and he howled in pain. Smoke was rising from his hand as he removed it from the gate. Then it opened. And I stepped in.

I walked a little further and came to the common room. A large chandelier was hanging from the ceiling, a red substance bubbling in cups on the chandelier. I had a feeling that the red stuff wasn't strawberry yoghurt. A plush, black carpet was spread over the floor. Another deformed human was cleaning the walls, whistling "Ring Around the Rosies". I had actually paid attention to Chiron in history class and found out that there was a dark secret behind that song. It wasn't just a cheerful nursery rhyme. The song was meant to describe a disease.

I walked a little further… And then… I reached the main chamber. It was simply colossal. In my field trip, I hadn't actually come here. It was forbidden. The whole room was just…black. The floor was made out of exquisite black marble. Gemstones and black rock made the walls. And in the middle of it all, there were two thrones. The left one for Hades. The right one for Persephone, his (stolen) wife. The whole room stunk of death and millennia of torture.

"I told him to pay his funeral fees, and he didn't listen. Tell him that I warned him. And ask him how his mother is doing." Hades was whispering into his phone (and not doing a good job at it) while he looked at me. He had obviously seen or sensed me coming into the room. He was holding YiYun in his left hand, and she was struggling to get out. I was actually surprised that she was still alive. But then again, Hades wouldn't kill his own kid.

I looked at Hades suspiciously…he didn't look quite…right. I mean, I had never pictured Hades to be as neat or as elegant as this. In the pictures I've seen of him, he has never looked like this. He was wearing a white, Roman dress-thingy, and a wreath of vines was placed upon his head.

"Ah, yes, Ryan. I've been waiting. And I look like this because…well… My alter ego, Hades, is taking a break. He's in Miami now, patiently waiting for the right time to blow a volcano. Meanwhile, he put me in charge." The alter-ego of Hades gestured to himself proudly.

I cocked my head to one side. "Then who are you? Why did you capture YiYun?"

He laughed like I was asking a silly question. Maybe I was. "Well, well, Ryan. For your information, I'm Pluto. The Roman version of Hades. And lucky for you and your little friend here," He held up YiYun to show me, as if I hadn't seen her earlier on, "I'm a little more gentle than Hades. But I'm still evil, though." He added as an afterthought.

"So, are you gonna return me YiYun?" I asked him.

He laughed again. "No, no, my little chap. I need her for a little plan of mine and Hades'. See, both of us want a shrine for each of us, at Camp Half-Blood. We haven't been properly honoured in ages, so we thought, _what better way to do that than to use one of the campers to influence the others to build the shrines? _So we cleverly decided to use Hades' daughter to do the job."

"Never!" YiYun screamed. She thrashed around in Pluto's hand and Pluto wasn't even trying hard to keep her in his hand.

"So, since you're probably gonna get in the way of Hades' and my evil scheme, I'm afraid I'll have to dispose of you." Pluto set YiYun down on his throne and she just lay there, stuck to it like a magnet.

Pluto snapped and he shrunk down to human size. "I'm going to play fair. Same size. Roughly same skills." He sniggered. "First to land a blow with your weapon on the opponent's body wins."

"But you're immortal! You strike me and I'll die! I strike you and you won't!" I screamed at him.

"Oh, no big deal." He swatted my protest aside. He snapped again, and a double-edged sword appeared in his hand. I uncapped Boltstream at the same time.

"Ready, steady…Go!" Pluto lunged at me with lightning speed. I only managed to dodge his attack barely. His body hit me and I tumbled onto the marble. He turned around and licked his lips, closing in for the kill. I rolled to one side as he jabbed at where I was a second ago. The ground there exploded in a shower of sparks and fragments of marble was lying everywhere.

"Die, pathetic hero." Pluto swung his blade and I parried using Boltstream. He decided to make a 180-degree turn to strike me with his blade. I saw the flaw. I jabbed with all my might in his side, using Boltstream. Electricity flowed through the sword into his wound, and he screamed in agony. Ichor, golden blood of immortals, flowed onto my sword.

Pluto collapsed onto the ground. He was unconscious. But probably not for very long. I blasted him with an electric shock that shot out of my hand. My powers! They were working! I flew up to the top of Pluto/Hades' throne. YiYun was lying there, obviously fatigued from trying to free herself. I touched her and immediately I could feel the curse of her being stuck to the throne being released.

"C'mon, let's go." She was too tired to move. She tried to stand up, but collapsed soon after. Having no choice, I carried her and flew may way out of that stinking throne room.

When I reached the gates, I yelled at the same guard before to open a portal to the cabin in California for me. He quickly did, fear in his eyes showing that he did not want to see Boltstream again.

A deep purple vortex opened before me, and I stood closer to it. YiYun held me tighter. And I stepped through.

**Yes, yes, I know it's a long chapter. You're welcome. Sorry if I hadn't been posting chapters lately. Hey, I'm sure every kid reading this has homework and lots of school, right? So do I. Once more, I appreciate all you avid readers of my story. Peace out. –hybrid3690**


	26. The Village

It was already daytime when we emerged back at the hut, everything looking much nicer, including the hut, to my surprise. Sunflowers swayed once again and a pretty strong gust of wind blew.

Everyone was worried. My sister flung herself onto me. Kayla wiped a tear from her eye and hugged me, her blue jumper's strings clinging on to my shirt. YiYun got off my back and stared at me evilly, like she thought she didn't need my help. Dylan smiled when he saw me and started asking me questions, along with Damien. Nightrack just snorted and lay on his back, crushing dozens of sunflowers. He had a mouse in his mouth, tail hanging limply, probably one of his night's catch.

We did not say a lot – the rest gave YiYun and I some time to rest on Nightrack's back as they walked towards the nearby village, Nightrack trotting along merrily.

I opened my eye a little to glimpse the village. It wasn't like any I've ever seen before; people were dancing and singing in the parade square, men with neat beards and trimmed moustaches were playing their banjos and guitars to the same tune at the side. From the parade square, several branches of shops led off outwards, lined with both modern convenience stores and traditional souvenir shops. In the center of the parade square, though, was an excellent statue of a horse, flames bursting from its hooves and mane, glinting in gold. I stared at it in awe.

However, despite the temptation to explore this village, we only went to a convenience store to get ourselves some supplies.

Then Kayla did something very amazing. She uttered some very confusing Greek words to an iced drink freezer…and slowly… It clanked and clinked and transformed, a piece of metal moving at a time, to an old-fashioned Greek war chariot. It wasn't anything too fancy, a bit rusty and tinted on the outside, but it was its contents that mattered.

Flavored ambrosia squares and bottled golden nectar overflowed out of the chariot. A few mortal shoppers stopped browsing the aisles and stared at us, open-mouthed. Whatever it was they saw through the Mist, it wasn't that pretty. A young boy screamed and dashed out into the streets and ran towards the parade square, screaming, "Papa! Papa!"

We figured that that couldn't be very good for us. We stuffed all the goodies into our bags and quickly bailed out of the store. I heard the chariot clink back into an ordinary freezer behind me.

Whoever it was that decided running towards the parade square couldn't have been that bright.

We soon found ourselves backed against the statue of the horse, angry villagers in their tattered clothes holding pitchforks and threatening us. I thought that they would be a tad bit smarter and hold more dangerous things to threaten us, but nope, they went with pitchforks. I thought these people were only seen on TV.

Then, out of nowhere, an angry horse, as big as a tank, black as the night, came dashing towards the few of the quest members, neighing as loud as it could, hooves roaring with the fire of furnaces. It jerked its head towards its back, seemingly telling us, 'Quickly! Don't ask questions!'

Then we soared into the sky, the horse morphing into a dragon simultaneously while it flew. "Seriously, Nightrack? A flaming horse?" I asked him. He just rolled his head back to look at me and purred. I scratched his chin, and he purred again.


End file.
